Throne of Fury

by J. A. Armitage

  When I got back to the dressing room, Charlotte and Dahlia were in the middle of the extremely important task of matching shoes with the dress. Her feet were a size smaller than my mother's, so Dahlia was reduced to scrunching up paper to fill the ends.

  "We'll have to order something for the actual wedding," she said as she slipped a shoe on Charlotte's foot. For a second, it reminded me of the story of the queen of Arcadia, Cinderella, who came to rule because of a shoe. I was willing to bet Cinderella didn't stuff her glass slipper with paper.

  "Here," I said, passing the jewelry box to Charlotte.

  She almost did a jig up and down on the spot in excitement. It was wonderful to watch. Her eyes opened wide with wonder as she opened the box. Inside the ruby necklace shone brightly, almost illuminating her face, but instead of the red they were before, now the rubies had changed into sparkling diamonds.

  "Holy shit!" she breathed.

  "Dragon fire!" I murmured at the change in the necklace.

  "Beautiful," Dahlia mouthed.

  We all spoke at the same time, but it was Charlotte's expression that interested me the most. The awe in her face had turned into something else, something bordering on shock.

  "What is it?" I asked, pulling the box from her hands and gazing at the diamonds twinkling back at me. They had certainly not been diamonds before.

  "How do you have the necklace of the gods?"

  "What?" Dahlia looked at her with a perplexed expression, matching the turmoil inside me.

  "I've seen this necklace before," Charlotte said, looking up at me, "but never on a human."

  I snapped the box closed quickly. Suddenly it had become something I didn't want anyone to see. Something that elicited questions.

  "Where did you get that from?" Dahlia asked, giving me a suspicious glare.

  "I found it in the vault," I lied, hoping she wouldn't go down to check. "I guess it was given to my mother as a gift."

  She nodded, seemingly satisfied with my answer, but I could see Charlotte wasn't.

  "What do you mean, not human?" I whispered to her.

  "These necklaces were given to people of high importance from the gods. Before now, I've only seen high fae wearing them. They hold powerful magic. I learned about them in my research."

  I thanked her quickly, my mind whirring, and rushed the necklace back to my room.

  Caspian had told me I wasn't a faerie like him. Of course, I wasn't. I didn't have the pointed ears of the fae, and yet, this was another hint that I wasn't human. If the gods gifted these necklaces to the fae, who else did they give them to? It was yet another mystery I needed to find out. I hid the necklace under the bed as someone knocked on my door. I opened it to find Charlotte.

  "I'm sorry if I upset you back there. You ran off awfully quickly."

  "You didn't," I lied. She didn't need to know that my mom had left this for me. I knew for sure, my mother wasn't a faerie, nor was she any other kind of magical creature. No the necklace might have been left for me by my adopted mom, but it had come from my birth mom. Maybe that's why my mother had hidden it away with the dwarves.

  "Who else but fae owned these necklaces?" I asked her.

  She shrugged, belying the interest in her eyes. "I don't know, but you can bet they would be powerfully magic. I think there's one in Enchantia."

  Well, that made sense. Enchantia was the most magical of all the kingdoms.

  "A mage owns one?"

  "I believe so. My research didn't stretch to the mages of Enchantia. They aren't given out willy-nilly, not even to royals. I'm surprised that someone gave theirs to your mother, even if she is a queen."

  A myriad of thoughts ran through my mind as I considered the necklace and how it had come to be in the dwarves' mine. Nothing made sense anymore, and something that should have sparked such joy only made me more nervous.

  "Not half as surprised as I am," I said under my breath, linking my arm with hers. "Come on, let's go find Caspian. You're going to knock him out in that dress."

  After scouring the castle, we finally found him in the dining room, waiting for dinner.

  "Ah, there you are," he said as we walked in. "I've been meaning to come and find you. The Sentinel posted a picture of me, and I'm not sure you are going to like it."

  Beside me, I felt Charlotte tense up. She looked absolutely stunning, and Caspian hadn't even looked her way.

  "I don't care about what The Sentinel prints," I said, "Don't you think Charlotte is looking beautiful today?"

  He grimaced, then cast his eyes at Charlotte.

  "That's a nice dress," he commented, before swiveling his eyes back to me. "Now, what do you want to do about The Sentinel?"

  Charlotte ran from the room, and I could hardly blame her.

  "You are a total asshole, you know that, right? This is the second time in as many days you've done this," I snapped.

  As I ran out of the room after Charlotte, I heard him shouting out behind me. "What did I do?"

  I found Charlotte in her room, sobbing her heart out.

  "The guy is an asshat, you know that, right?" I said, sitting beside her on the bed.

  She smiled through a snot-streaked face. I stood up and found her a tissue, which she accepted gratefully.

  "I just thought if I was beautiful, he'd want me."

  "If you dated him, you'd have to fight for the mirror. The only person he thinks is beautiful is himself."

  "He thinks you're beautiful."

  "Purlease. He wants me because of who I am. He wouldn't give me a second glance if I wasn't a princess. Besides, he's only marrying me as a favor to my father. I don't even think the guy likes me very much. He keeps trying to kill me."

  "I doubt that," she said. "That's his way of showing love."

  "His way of showing love is to kill his partner? What is he? A praying mantis?"

  She laughed again. I left her to get out of her dress and take her make-up off and headed back to my room.

  Looking down at my watch, I realized that the day had flown by, and my plans of heading to Urbis would have to be put off again. I didn't want to set off in the dark, and the evenings drew in awfully early in the winter. Closing the bedroom door behind me, I retrieved my messed up clothes from the wardrobe and began the laborious task of refolding them all. Less than a minute later, a knock at the door interrupted me.

  Thinking it was Charlotte, I opened the door, but it wasn't Charlotte. Milo stood there, his face like thunder.

  He threw today's newspaper down in front of me and walked away. When I looked down, I saw a picture of me on the cover. A picture of me and Caspian. We were kissing.

  21st January

  Milo stood just outside my door, guarding it. It was his job, after all, but I knew he'd rather be anywhere but where he was. I'd hurt him badly, and no amount of talking to him had changed things. I'd brought him into my room, but there was no explaining away the photo of Caspian and I kissing. How the photographer had managed to capture the shot without either of us seeing, I'd never know, but he had, and now, the whole kingdom could see what a wretch I was.

  I was lost to him now. It damn near broke my heart, but considering what I was about to do, it was probably for the best. Happily ever after for us was never in our future anyway. This heartbreak was always going to happen to both of us, it had just come sooner than expected.

  Opening my window, I tried to drive thoughts of Milo from my mind. It was too painful to bear. Holding my hands out, I concentrated my magic. A small beam of light shot straight upward. My fear was that the guards in the courtyard would see me and come rushing up, but none of them even turned their heads my way, and I held the light.

  I thought that maybe the dragons hadn't heard my call, but five minutes later, one of them landed on my window sill. The one I'd called for. Nyre ruffled her wings then hopped through the door. She'd transformed into her part-human self before the window was even shut.

  "You ok?"

  I nodded, runni
ng over to her, my forefinger extended over my lips.

  "We have to whisper."

  "Oh, wow. So exciting." her eyes widened. "What's happening? I love secrets."

  It's not a secret exactly, I whispered, throwing a t-shirt at her to cover her bare chest. Her breasts were covered by her locks of long purple hair, but if anyone were to come in, they would wonder why she was in my room completely naked. The bottom half of her was almost more dragon than human with her iridescent purple scales, so it didn't really matter about covering her up there. Not that she seemed even the slightest bit bothered about her nakedness.

  "You do realize that if I put this on, I'll only rip it to shreds when I transform back, right?"

  I rolled my eyes and realized she was right. It must be awfully inconvenient being a shifter. Not that I'd seen any of them clothed when I was on the top of the mountain. Who needs clothes when you have beautiful scales and long hair to cover your wobbly bits, right?

  She pulled the shirt over her head, not bothering to free her long hair from the neckline as I would have done. She looked remarkably cute in the thing. Much cuter than I ever had.

  She picked up a book I'd left half-read on my bedside cabinet weeks before and flicked through the pages, absorbed in it as I often was with books. That particular book had sat there unloved and unlooked at for weeks, worry having taken over my nightly ritual of reading. I remembered it was a good book, but if anyone asked me now, I wouldn't be able to even begin to recall what it was about.

  She appeared to be reading the words, but I wondered if she even knew how to read. Pulling the book away from her seemed cruel, but I had things to do. Things that couldn't wait. Carefully, I took the book from her hands.

  "You can have this if you like."

  Her eyes went wider still, elation plain on her face. She pulled the book back and hugged it to her chest.

  "Thank you," she mouthed, her lips crinkling up at the side.

  "I was wondering if you'd help me."

  "In exchange for this beautiful paper thing?" she asked, holding the book up.

  "No. The paper thing, the book. It's yours either way."

  She nodded thoughtfully. "But you want help?"

  "Yes. I need to get to Urbis. There are many ways to travel there, but I don't want anyone to stop me. Not even the king knows I want to venture there."

  "You want me to take you on an adventure?"

  I nodded. "I do. I could catch the train or Urbis Express, but both of those are public transport, and people would recognize me. I could take a horse, but it would take days to get there. I need to get there soon."

  "Sounds good to me. Ooh. I've never been to a big city before. Do you know how to get there?"

  Now that she'd mentioned it, I had no idea how to get to Urbis. I knew it was southwest of Draconis, but that was about it.

  "Not exactly, but we could follow the train lines. The main line goes there. I know because I've traveled there in the royal carriage before."

  "Can't you just travel in the royal carriage again?"

  "Not without my father finding out."

  She bounced on the bed, clapping her hands. "Well, goody for me! I get to come on the adventure. What is it we are going for?"

  "I want to find my mother."

  "I thought your mother was sick?" she asked, cocking her head to one side

  "Not my mother, my birth mother. I think I was born in Urbis, and I need to go there and try and find out for sure."

  "And you want to stay how long?"

  I'd been thinking about my trip for a few days. Ever since I'd found out from Milo that I was born in Urbis, going there had occupied my every thought. Not only would going there give me a chance to find out about who I was and where I came from, it also meant I might just be able to solve another problem I had. I could hide out in Urbis while the competition was going on and miss my wedding. Yeah, my father was going to go ballistic. My leaving would do him no favors, but if I could find out what had happened to my mother, and figure out a way to save her, he would soon forgive me. He wouldn't care a jot about an abandoned wedding if my mother woke up. The competition was in a week's time and my wedding a few days after that. I figured it would take about four or five days to get to Urbis, but it was only a wild guess. I'd always slept on the train and never paid any attention to how long each journey took.

  "Ten days. Four days there, Four back and maybe one or two in Urbis itself. I have a little money. Enough to stay in a hotel or something."

  "You call this a little money?" she asked, taking in the grandeur of the room. It embarrassed me the way everyone thought I was rich because of the stuff I had. Okay, yes, I had a lot of fine things that cost a lot of money, but it was all useless if I didn't have the freedom to go with it. I had to stash money away to get the small amount needed to spend ten days in Urbis. I had to smash a childhood piggy bank, which I'd had since before I could remember, and even then, it was barely enough for a couple of days in a hotel. I couldn't sell any of my things, nor could I use them to buy other things like food. So I'd spent the last few days searching the castle for cash. For a place as filled to the brim with riches as it was, it was surprisingly difficult to find any actual cash. Going back down to the vault was not an option. I'd already made Hestor suspicious once this week, and I could hardly do it again. So I had to be more creative, searching down the backs of sofas and into the pockets of my parents' coats hanging in the closet. Okay, yes, it was stealing, but I found such small amounts in each place I looked, my father wouldn't notice anything missing. It took a full three days to gather the amount I had, and I wasn't sure it would be enough, but I was counting on Nyre being able to forage for a lot of her own food, and while we were out in the countryside, maybe some food for me too.

  "I don't know much about Urbis," Nyre said. "But I think it will take a lot longer than four days. I will have to rest. I'm not a train or an airship. I'm a dragon. I will need to take frequent rests, and I will need to sleep. Am I right in thinking you slept on the train when you went before? Because I can't carry you while you sleep. When you sleep, I'll be sleeping too."

  She was right, of course. I'd assumed she would be this relentless machine, but she was a living creature.

  "I guess we will take longer then...maybe two weeks?"

  "And you'll not want to fly over any towns or cities. People will see us, and word will get back."

  I slumped down on my bed. In my active imagination, this had all been so easy. Find money, call Nyre, and just go. Now, she was filling my head with problems I didn't even know I'd have, and what was worse, she was right about every single one of them.

  I'd only packed a small bag, thinking I'd not be gone too long, but it looked like I'd have to rethink the whole thing.

  "Would you mind waiting until I repacked. It won't take a minute."

  "I can wait for you, but you will need to wait for me too. I cannot just leave the colony. My father would come looking for me."

  Vasuki! I'd forgotten about him too. My mind was just such a mess of things that my plan was a total disaster.

  "Maybe I shouldn't do this..." I said, feeling dejected. Maybe I should accept my fate and marry whoever won the competition. It would keep my father happy if nothing else.

  "Don't be silly. We can do this. I'll come back tonight."

  I nodded. There was something about Nyre that made me feel better about the whole thing. She quickly turned back into a dragon, ripping the t-shirt to shreds as she had predicted and flew out of the window.

  The door bursting open behind me had me turning my head.

  "Who were you talking to?"

  Caspian strolled into the room as though he owned the place. Something he was particularly skilled at.

  "How dare you come into my room." I cast my eyes down to the bed, knowing I'd hidden my sword underneath it.

  He followed my line of sight.

  "Don't worry. You will not need your sword. I only came in because I thought
you were in trouble. Who was it, by the way? Do you have someone hiding in the bathroom? It didn't sound like a man, but one can never be too sure."

  "I wasn't talking to anyone," I snapped back as he wandered over to the bathroom door and peered into the bathroom.

  "Hmmm. What a mess you keep your room in," he said, picking up a piece of the remnants of t-shirt that Nyre left behind. "When we are married, I'll expect you to keep your home much better than this."

  I strode over to him, pushing against his chest. "If you don't like my house, feel free to leave...Any time."

  I slammed the door in his face, anger surging through me.

  I spent the afternoon outside in the woods where I'd been practicing with Milo. He wasn't outside my door when I left, and I didn't ask Jack where he was. I didn't want to know. If Jack told me he'd gone home, I knew I'd run to his house and drag the pain out longer than necessary for both of us.

  Without Milo, fighting seemed pointless, with only the snow to keep me company, but anger spurred me on, forcing me to carry on the practice. I was almost as good as Milo now. I'd proved that. I was a match for him. I fought invisible foes all afternoon until hunger forced me to leave the beauty of our fighting place and move indoors.

  After a quick change of clothes in my bedroom, I headed down to dinner. I had plenty of time before Nyre was to come pick me up, so I decided to eat my fill. I didn't know when I'd be eating again.

  For the first time in what felt forever, my whole family was at the dinner table. The only person missing was my mother. Her empty seat was all the more obvious now that the others were filled.

  "Where have you been all day?" My father asked as I sat down in my place. Immediately, a servant brought over a plate of meat and vegetables.

  "I was outside getting some fresh air, Father."

  "In this weather?" he indicated the window where the snow fell freely. I would need to take some warm clothing with me if I were to survive.